AMMAN (JT) — Her Majesty Queen Rania explored and promoted Jordanian-Turkish collaborations in the field of Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Education during a two-day working trip to Istanbul, which concluded on Friday.

During a press conference on Friday, Her Majesty noted the importance of ensuring access to, and quality of, education for all its children — girls and boys — while commending Turkish initiatives in the field.

Queen Rania and Emine Erdogan, wife of the Turkish prime minister, reiterated the importance of ECD programmes to members of the press.

“Last year, we launched our National Kindergarten Curriculum and currently 99,000 children are enrolled in kindergartens, but we will not rest until every child has access to a quality preschool education,” Queen Rania said, referring to the progress Jordan has made in this area.

Queen Rania's trip to the Turkish city included site visits to several prominent Turkish educational initiatives.

On Thursday, the Queen visited the Caglayan Primary School, which implements Mother Child Education Foundation (ACEV) Learning Centre programmes.

Dozens of students waving Jordanian and Turkish flags received the Queen, in addition to ACEV General Manager Aysen Ozyegin, who had visited Jordan late last year to discuss prospective collaborations between the foundation and Jordan in the field.

The Queen reviewed the progress of the memorandum of understanding, which was signed with the National Council for Family Affairs and the United Nations Children's Fund last year.

During her visit, Queen Rania participated in four programmes implemented at the school.

In the first, the Mother Child Education Programme (MCEP), Her Majesty engaged in a candid discussion with the participants on the general benefits of the programme. The MCEP seeks to empower mothers as potential educators through multi-purpose nonformal educational models.

At the Father Support Programme, she interacted with participants in a game on positive discipline methods, discussing the changes in their relationships with their children, as a result of the programme, which is designed to encourage and support fathers to take a more positive and active role in their child's development.

In the Women's Support and Functional Adult Literacy Programme, part of the EU-funded “Reducing Gender Disparity in Girls Education Project,” the Queen participated in a discussion on the importance of girls' primary education.

Queen Rania concluded her visit with a stop at the Preschool Parent Child Education Programme, where she joined a group of children participating in various exercises.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the Queen visited one of the sites of the Educational Volunteers Foundation, also known as the Türkiye Egitim Gonüllüleri Vakfi (TEGV), to observe and interact with children and volunteers participating in the Dreams Workshop.

Queen Rania chatted with the children, who are regularly bussed into the centre from local state schools to take part in activities complementing basic schooling, and their volunteer mentors as they engaged in creating marbling pictures and clay work in the Dreams Workshop “Life Skills through Art Activities Programme,” a life skills enhancement programme for volunteers carried out through creative art and design workshops with children.

The Dreams Workshop project seeks to enhance the self-esteem and communication skills of youth volunteers, while offering disadvantaged children and adolescents creative activities, to enable them to become confident, effective and empathetic community members.

Launched in 2003, the project has supported nearly 800 volunteers and 40,000 children throughout Turkey in creating their future. It is being realised in Turkey through the Make a Connection programme, a joint initiative of Nokia and the International Youth Foundation (IYF).

Other activities offered at the centre include IT literacy, cooking up basics — nutrition, sports for fun, and drama games.

Prior to her departure, the children presented Her Majesty with a painting from the workshop as a memento of her visit.

TEGV is a nonprofit organisation, which has been working with various governmental and nongovernmental organisations since its inception in 1995. TEGV is a member of the IYF, where Queen Rania serves as a board member.

Earlier in the day, the Queen attended the opening session of the Early Childhood Education for Social and Economic Development Conference. The conference, held under the theme, Seven is too Late, was organised by ACEV to further encourage the adoption of ECD programmes in Turkey and throughout the Middle East.

Sunday, February 26, 2006